Puerto Saplaya to Castellon de la Plana

Planaterium, Castellon de la Plana

SATURDAY 25 APRIL 2009

This coast of Spain is called the Costa del Azahar, the coast of Orange Blossom, and we have been smelling orange blossom quite strongly for the past few days, which reminds us of Seville. We set off in a fairly calm sea with the wind on the nose, but the seas gradually built up and were quite uncomfortable. We arrived in Castellon de la Plana in a strong force 5, which made Mediterranean mooring even more tricky, despite the help from the Marineros. Although our forecast had not shown winds stronger than a 4, the Marinero said the next couple of days there were going to be some very strong winds, so we decided to stay put for a few days. We were therefore delighted to find out that the cost at this marina is only about 15 euros a night and has free WiFi!



SUNDAY 26 APRIL 2009

There wasn’t too much sign of the forecast strong winds at first, but during the day the wind got up to about a Force 5.
In the morning we visited the nearby Planetarium, which was excellent value for 2 euros – slightly cheaper than Madam Tussaud’s I think! The wind became stronger later on with rain and thunder, and the Marineros came round to check we were OK and said to call on Channel 9 if we needed anything.

We were very impressed with Castellon de la Plana.  It is quite a large city, being the capital of Castellon, and has a lovely 18th century Plaza Mayor

MARINA: 15 euros a night; free WiFi, electricity, showers (although cold when I used them). For some reason, they have changed the men’s and women’s shower rooms around, which means the women get the urinals!

Valencia

Mercado Centrale, Valencia

FRIDAY 24 APRIL 2009

What a fantastic city Valencia is! No wonder El Cid fought the Moors for it. There is a contrast between the ultra modern of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias and the medieval old city, where many of the buildings date from the 14th Century. The magnificent art nouveau Mercado Central was opened in 1928 and is one of the largest markets in Europe. 

Opposite the market is the colonnaded hall of the 15th century Lonja de los Mercadores. We made our way through the narrow streets via the city gates of Torres de Quart and Torres de Serranos to the Plaza de la Virgen, passing the Palau de la Generalitat which was built in the 15th century and still looks like new! This is where the Valencian regional government is based. 

Next to the Cathedral is the 16th century Basilica which has a beautiful painted ceiling and an ornately dressed statue of the Virgin. The Plaza de la Virgen is on the site of the original Roman forum, and we had a guided tour of the archaeological site La Almoina. The magnificent art nouveau station was completed in 1917 and looks like an enormous palace, and the nearby Post Office has a wonderful glass ceiling.

To do Valencia justice, more time was needed than the two days we had allowed. Definitely a city to return to in the future!

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia

Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias

THURSDAY 23 APRIL 2009

The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias is an amazing futuristic design incorporating various buildings to house the Palau de les Artes, Hemisferic with an IMAX Cinema, Museo de las Ciencias and Oceanografic. It is quite expensive at 63 euros for the two of us. The Science Museum was not that impressive, but the Oceanografic was. 

We had lunch in the Submarino restaurant, which has an aquarium going around the whole of the restaurant. There are several massive aquariums with different habitats from tropical to polar zones. The highlights for me were seeing the sea dragons, sea horses, walruses and the Mola Mola (sunfish). We have seen sunfish when we’re sailing, in the Med and UK, but usually only see their top fin, so it was interesting to see what the whole fish looks like!

As it had taken about 1.5 hours to get to the Centre by bus, we got a taxi back which took 10 minutes and only cost 10 euros.

Benidorm to Denia, then Puerto Saplaya, Valencia

First fish of the season

TUESDAY 21 APRIL 2009

BENIDORM - DENIA - 47 MILES

We were woken about 7.30 a.m. by a knock on the hull – always disconcerting when you’re at anchor – and the police were there because we’d moored slightly inside a swimming buoy. It was a beautiful sunny day and flat sea. The wind got up to about 20 knots as we were nearing Calpe, so Roger decided to sail, which quickly heeled the boat, and one of his expensive sailing boots fell into the sea. We tacked about 5 miles offshore but by the time we turned for the homeward stretch, the wind had reduced to about 5 knots, so we ended up motoring the rest of the way – typical!

We arrived in Denia at about 4.30 and were shown to a berth in the Marina where a very pleasant girl in the office dealt with our paperwork. She said she had been working there for two years and we were the first English couple to speak to her in Spanish. After we changed our gas bottle in the chandlery we had a cocktail in one of the bars. There’s good a choice of restaurants and bars in the Marina so we went out for a meal later on. Although we didn’t have time to explore Denia, it looked a very attractive place.

MARINA: 20 euros, electricity & water metered, lovely individual bathrooms.

WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL 2009

DENIA - PUERTO SAPLAYA, VALENCIA - 53 MILES

Visibility was not so good, so we put the radar up – more toys to play with, but it turned into a lovely warm day. The countryside in this part of Spain is very pretty with houses and villas dotted up the slopes of the mountains. The highlights of the trip were spotting a sunfish and Roger catching the first fish of the season – a Bonito (like a small tuna). We motored the whole way, arriving in Puerta Saplaya 3 miles north of Valencia about 5 p.m. The port only has about 2 meters charted depth which silts up and we ran aground a couple of times trying to maneuver. We were about to give up and go somewhere else when the Marinero called over to us and directed us to a berth. There is no water, electricity or showers, but there is a massive El Campo supermarket and shopping centre nearby.

MARINA: 25 euros per night, no water, electricity or showers. 3 miles to Valencia. The Americas Cup Marina would be better, but we didn’t know where it was and had no charts for it.

WILDLIFE: Sunfish

Torrevieja to Benidorm - 45 Miles

MONDAY 20 APRIL 2009

After three weeks of strong afternoon winds, I was feeling a little nervous at leaving our safe harbour of the past six months in Torrevieja. The yacht club had everything we needed and had become like home and we’d made some good friends there. However, our mooring was paid until 20 April so as long as the forecast was good, we would be leaving.

We couldn’t have left any earlier, not only because of the weather but various things we’d ordered didn’t arrive until the last week. We ordered a Seahopper wooden collapsible dinghy from the Boat Show in London at the beginning of December, and it only arrived the Thursday before we left. A very expensive book Roger had ordered on the internet three weeks previously only arrived on the Friday. Tony from the Dive School kindly took our regulators to be serviced about three weeks ago but when he chased them, they still hadn’t been done, so after making sure they were safe but not serviced, Tony brought them to us on a very wet Sunday the day before we left.

We woke to blue sky and sun – quite a relief after the constant rain the day before – and after getting diesel we said goodbye to our home for the past six months. The first thing we noticed was that the auto helm wasn’t working! This meant we had to hand steer the whole way. The log was also not working, even though the boat had been lifted out of the water and any barnacles etc. stuck there had been removed. I spent the morning trying to learn how to operate our new Horizon chart plotter which is linked to our AIS system – great fun as when I put the cursor on the symbol showing another boat it gives me their name, call sign and speed. Roger had read that it was best to run our engine at about 2500 revs which meant we can now average about 6 – 6.5 knots instead of the previous 5 knots. It may also be going faster since we have had its bottom cleaned.

The gas ran out when Roger was making our toasted sandwiches for lunch, which meant emptying the cockpit locker to change it. The weather changed later on and we could see heavy showers and lightening on the coast. There were some heavy showers later on, but luckily I was having my siesta at the time and was tucked up in bed. 

We arrived at Villajoyosa about 4.30 p.m. and asked for a berth on the radio but were told there weren’t any (although we could see empty spaces), so we anchored just around the corner off Benidorm. Roger spent about two hours trying to sort out the auto helm – a wire had come loose, probably when the men were wiring our new LED masthead lights. We had an uncomfortable night as, although there was only a slight swell, the boat lay sideways on to it.

Learning to sail our new dinghy, the Seahopper

Overwintering in Torrevieja

ROGER'S BLOG

Torrevieja proved to be a good choice for overwintering on the Costa Blanca, the town has everything one needs, except charm! The Club Nautico offers friendly staff, immaculately clean facilities and a good, relatively cheap, restaurant. Sheila and I quickly settled into the routine of eating out every day as there are many cheap and interesting cafes and restaurants – it seemed to work out cheaper and easier than shopping and cooking on board. In addition, there are several well stocked and helpful chandleries which made the many maintenance jobs easier.

People who ask us how do you fill your time have, obviously, never lived on a boat. During the sailing season many things malfunction (the salt-water, high ultra-violet environment is not kind!), and most jobs are bodged pending a winter refit (see, for example, our earlier account of the blocked bog!). We arrived in Torrevieja in October and I only finished my job list in the following April! Among the tasks undertaken were the following:

(1) Drain outboard motor of petrol (it goes off if left over winter and coats the spark plug, preventing ignition) and change outboard oil;
(2) Drain and replace inboard engine oil. Fit new oil filter, diesel, and air filter;
(3) Engage mechanic to fix/replace malfunctioning fuel, oil pressure and water temperature gauges;
(4) Remove sails and engage sail maker to replace zip in stack pack and fit new sacrificial strip to headsail;
(5) Fit new compass, chart plotter and AIS system;
(6) Make new access panel for heads, replace and refit all head pipes and valves; including fitting new shower head and basin drain;
(7) Teak oil hand rails and cockpit grating;
(8) Varnish companionway and wash boards;
(9) Paint headlining in heads and aft cabin;
(10) Organize lift out, pressure wash, the fitting of new anodes and the polishing of topsides;
(11) Fit new bilge pump;
(12) Drain suitcase generator oil and petrol and replace oil;
(13) Clean and pickle water-maker;
(14) Grease rudder stock and stern gland;
(15) Remove and wash all halyards;
(16) Remove cockpit canopy;
(17) Fit new LED anchor and tricolor lights at masthead
(18) Grease all sea cocks
(19) Dose diesel tank with biocide (I use the Marine 16 product)
(20) Make and fit new plugs for sealing anchor and chain locker;
(21) Fit additional buoyancy bags to new “Seahopper” dinghy;
(22) Service winches and fit new spring (the old one was lost during a previous service!).

In addition to all this work, we enjoyed the company of three lots of visitors. The first were Diana and Graham, friends who we seduced into sailing some years ago (and who are still talking to us!), who visited us in October. Unusually, the weather was very bad and we only managed to go sailing for a few hours one morning, only to return to the Club Nautico in time to see a large waterspout head for the coast! Our other visitors were our friend Junko from our Spanish class in Seville and our daughter Jessica and her friend Ruth who came out to complete their PADI open water diving qualification in warmer conditions than the UK could offer.

We caught a bus to Alicante one day and saw the preparations for the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.  When the boat was out of the water we hired a car to spend a few days in Granada.

Around the World Volvo Ocean Race in Alicante

We enjoyed a good social life in Torrevieja; eating out and drinking with other overwintering sailors. I regret not having more time to practice sun sights from the South facing harbor wall and not sailing the new “Seahopper” in the sheltered waters of the harbor, but there will be other opportunities. As always, we set sail with both excited anticipation of new adventures in new places and the ever-present fear of the unknown.